Azrael: Angel of Death (2024)

 

"Seriously Decent Dialogue-Free Post Apocalypse Horror"

The latest film from director E L Katz (CHEAP THRILLS) and writer Simon Barrett (THE GUEST), and the best thing either of them have done since those movies, is getting a digital release from Signature Entertainment, with a disc release to follow.

In a grim post-apocalyptic world where pretty much nobody can speak, Samara Weaving manages to briefly make friends with a man before they are captured and taken to a miserable shanty town in the middle of the miserable forest in which the entire film takes place. She is tied to a chair, made to bleed and left as an offering for the burned anthropoid creatures that also inhabit the place. Samara escapes and someone else gets rather graphically ripped apart instead. 

She returns to the town where we slowly realise she has plans for the strange cult that exists there and in particular for its pregnant leader, leading to an eventual showdown amidst a conflagration.

There's a bit of explanatory text at the start of this that tells us we are in a post Rapture world and that some people have decided to render themselves unable to speak because they consider uttering words to be a sin. A scar on Weaving's neck suggests they have all undergone some sort of voluntary vocal cord surgery. The film doesn't actually need any of this and would quite likely be even more effective than it already is if there was less explanation rather than more, but it's there if you want it.

Otherwise AZRAEL: ANGEL OF DEATH is a surprisingly good, grim, post-apocalypse movie that goes in directions you don't expect, has some genuinely creepy and unpleasant scenes, and a climax that's just the right side of completely bonkers that must have made this one a hit on the festival circuit (it played at this year's Frightfest). Weaving, with her expressive eyes, is spot on casting for the lead and yes, apart from a few words in a foreign language, the film is essentially dialogue-free, instead relying entirely on its well put together visuals. Definitely worth catching. Time for a trailer:

AZRAEL: ANGEL OF DEATH is out on Digital from Signature Entertainment on Monday 30th September 2024 with a DVD and Blu-ray release planned for Monday 28th October 2024

Dead End Drive-In (1986)

“Like MAD MAX - but more fun!”

The phenomenal success of George Miller's Australian post-apocalyptic science fiction thrillers MAD MAX (1979) and its sequel MAD MAX 2 (THE ROAD WARRIOR in the US) subsequently caused fall out of its own in the form of numerous rip-offs and imitations that all attempted to cash in on those movies' heady mix of violence, action and vehicle porn. Most of these came, unsurprisingly, from Italy (Castellari's THE BRONX WARRIORS and THE NEW BARBARIANS, Sergio Martino's 2019: AFTER THE FALL OF NEW TORK and many others). 

While they were a lot of fun and made very much in the style of the comic books and Westerns that were their natural predecessors, most of these movies were made with a very straight face. Brian Trenchard-Smith's DEAD END DRIVE-IN, however, definitely feels as if it's been made with a twinkle in the eye. It's rather apt that this unique addition to the post-apocalypse subgenre should come from the same country that kick started it all, and now UK viewers have the chance to see it on Arrow’s new and upgraded Blu-ray and DVD release. 

Wearing its influences very much on its sleeveless torn T-shirt, DEAD END DRIVE-IN comes across as a mixture of satire, comedy and anarchic post-punk odyssey that might have been directed by John Hughes if he had imbibed a vast quantity of mind altering substances and then been pointed away from Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson and the rest of THE BREAKFAST CLUB.

In the kind of 1980s version of the future only Billy Idol would feel truly at home in, the unemployed are kept imprisoned in gated compounds that double as drive in cinemas. Given free food and drink, most of the inhabitants are happy to stay put, wasting their lives listening to electro-pop and bouffanting their hair in the very latest Toyah Willcox-inspired styles. Into one of these compounds comes the unfortunately-named Crabs (Ned Manning) and his bountiful girlfriend Carmen (Natalie McCurry who apparently went on to become Miss Australia) who don't realise the drive-in is also a prison. The police steal two of the wheels from Crabs' car and the two of them become inmates. However Crabs isn't content to live in the artificial society of DEAD END DRIVE-IN and makes plans to escape.

If the plot sounds a bit daft that's because it is, but anyone familiar with Australian current affairs of the time will be aware that there's quite a bit of satire going on here as well. There are also lots of car crashes, some nudity and enough colourful 1980s "fashions" to give you a headache if you don't look away from the screen from time to time. MAD MAX fans looking for something similar will probably find the whole thing much too silly, but if you're looking for something quirky, weird and unique this is well worth a watch. 

It’s in the extras that this new release improves considerably on the previous extra-free Arrowdrome edition. Now present and correct is the Brian Trenchard-Smith commentary track from the region 1 release. You also get a couple of Trenchard-Smith non-fiction pieces - ‘The Stuntmen’ is a TV documentary, and ‘Hospitals Don’t Burn Down’ is a 1978 public information film that stars BLOOD FROM THE MUMMY’S TOMB’s Mark Edwards in a decent 25 minute short that’s reminiscent of the UK’s melodramatic approach to public safety - well worth a watch! Other than that you also get a trailer, reversible sleeve, and a booklet with new writing on the film if you get the disc’s first pressing. 

Brian Trenchard-Smith's DEAD END DRIVE-IN is out on UK Blu-ray and DVD from Arrow on Monday 19th September 2016

Night of the Comet (1984)

For a short while in the early 1980s, movies dealing with the theme of survival post-apocalypse became so plentiful as to form a subgenre all their own. This was in part due to the political climate of the time (if you weren't there believe me, the potential imminence of nuclear devastation was actually pretty terrifying), but mainly because of the huge financial success of movies like MAD MAX (everywhere but the United States) and MAD MAX 2 aka THE ROAD WARRIOR (retitled in the US - you've probably guessed why). 

          Suddenly post apocalypse movies were in, with everything from movies with the worthiest of intentions (Barry Hines' THREADS) to simple money earners (virtually everything else) being churned out everywhere (unsurprisingly, Italy made quite a few). However, while almost all of these portrayed a nihilistic future of broken societies, gang warfare, and ridiculous hair, only one grabbed the last of these three essential elements, cast two personable young actresses as the leads, and ended up with quite possibly the most good-natured post-apocalypse movie ever made, if not the only good natured apocalypse movie ever made.

        Whereas MAD MAX 2 suggested we would be living in a wasteland ruled by petrol-obsessed muscle men dressed in bondage gear, and THREADS predicted we'd all be too busy throwing up from radiation poisoning to do anything other than tend our burned-beyond-recognition loved ones and have mutant babies, NIGHT OF THE COMET suggested that in the wake of worldwide disaster all you really might want to do is shop and listen to Cyndi Lauper covers.

It's the early 1980s in a world where video games consist of little more than blips and pixels, film is still something you run through a projector when it's not on quarter inch videotape, and if your hair isn't as big as your shoulder pads you're just not styling it right. It's a place where everyone wears leg warmers - especially lady scientists who work in underground bunkers, and where even the radioactive mutants have the right kind of sunglasses. When a series of DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS-like cosmic flares turns most of the population of Los Angeles to dust, eighteen year old Regina (Catherine Mary Stewart) and her younger sister Sam (Kelli Maroney) find themselves having to fight off zombie mutants while still finding time to shop at their favourite department stores. Meanwhile in evil scientist land, Geoffrey Lewis, Mary Woronov and others are trying to find a cure but instead are draining healthy people of their blood to keep themselves going. Soon Regina and Sam are on their hit list, and with Robert Beltran busy dressing up as Father Christmas the girls realise they're going to have to save the day.

It's completely unfair, but still rather fun, to compare Thom Eberhardt's NIGHT OF THE COMET with THREADS, if only because they were made the same year on different sides of the Atlantic, and that they illustrate nicely the tremendous gulf there was between the kind of television I grew up watching in the 1970s and 1980s and the eternally optimistic, upbeat way in which I imagined Americans of my age must view life. I'm not saying either was right or wrong because neither is, but in the relentlessly depressing atmosphere that was much of what counted for British television and cinema of that period, movies like NIGHT OF THE COMET were a breath a fresh air.

And they still are. NIGHT OF THE COMET remains a bouncy, silly, good natured SF film with a witty script and enough nods for genre fans (including its casting) that's it's almost impossible not to like.

Arrow's Blu-ray transfer is their usual excellent job, and there are plenty of extras as well. These include no less than three commentary tracks - one with writer-director Thom Eberhardt, a second with stars Catherine Mary Stewart and Kelli Maroney and third with production designer John Muto. There are brief interviews with the two female leads in 'Valley Girls at the End of the World' and it's good to see both have fond memories of the project. Mary Woronov is her usual delightfully off-kilter self in her interview 'End of the World Blues' and in 'The Last Man on Earth' Robert Beltran talks about turning his leading role down several times before finally accepting it. There's also an interview with makeup artist David B Miller, a theatrical trailer, and the usual Arrow reversible sleeve and booklet. A very pleasant package for a very pleasant film.

Arrow Films released Thom Eberhardt's NIGHT OF THE COMET on Region B Blu-ray on 22nd September 2014